Hello Fourth Grade Families!

General Studies with Mike:

Welcome back to class!

In math class, we began our new unit on decimals. As there is a large emphasis on decimals within the second half of the curriculum, we will remain on this concept for the next few months. Early in the week, students were introduced to a new place value – the tenths place! And then later in the week, they learned the hundredths place! Students were excited to see how fractions and money connect to decimals.

We continued our read aloud, Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin, discussing possible themes (life lessons) from the book as we are now 3/4 of the way through the text. We also discussed how our initial perceptions of characters and events can change as the author gives us more information.

I hope you’ve had the chance to view the fabulous opinion essays that the students published before break. They are on display on the bulletin board outside of the classroom. This week in writing, we transitioned to a new form of non-fiction writing – information writing (more specifically, using a chronological text structure to teach others how to do something). We discussed what types of transition phrases we can use in place of overused words like “first,” “next,” and “last” (Phrases like “to begin with,” “after a while,” and “to sum it up”).

In social studies, we continued learning about the events leading up to the American Revolution, including the Stamp Act, Boston Massacre, and Tea Act. We also continued practicing some note-taking strategies. We are gearing up to begin writing an information essay on the topic in the coming weeks.
 

Judaics with Aliza:

This week in Judaics, Fourth Grade started reading Megillat Esther in depth, discussing its historical context and cultural significance, and discovering how different the text is from the “kids’ version” we all knew growing up. We’re having a lot of fun and looking forward to our first game of Jewish Jeopardy, coming March 22!
Shabbat Shalom!